Six Plants to Forage this March and Lots of Recipes!

Foraging

Mar 20

Written By Camille van Hoegaerden

Wild Garlic

How to identify wild garlic

Confession - I’ve just deep cleaned my freezer and found a round of three year old wild garlic butter!

Part of my South African heritage means that braais (BBQs) are very close to my heart. As a kid, hands down, my favourite part of the braai was the garlic bread.

We used to buy a fresh baguette in the morning, make our own garlic and parsley butter, slice and slather the baguette, wrap it in foil and then cook it on the braai. YUM!

So why not make a batch of wild garlic this spring, pop it in the freezer and then impress all your friends at your next summer BBQ. (But maybe don’t forget about it for three years like me!)

Wild garlic butter

Wild garlic gnudi (ricotta dumplings)
Wild garlic pesto
Wild garlic cheese scones
Wild garlic capers (pickled wild garlic buds)

Primrose Flowers

How to identify primrose

I’ll admit they don’t taste like much but I love crystallising the flowers and using them to decorate cakes.

Crystallised primrose flowers (this method would work with other edible spring flowers too like wild violets and gorse)

Dandelion

How to identify dandelion

Dandelion leaves are bitter and delicious - you could use them anyway you would rocket for example in a salad, pesto or quiche. I’ve often made a spring quiche using tender stem broccoli, dandelion leaves and feta. I use filo pastry for the casing which is super crispy and delicious and means you don’t need to make your own pastry too!